Welcome to another edition of Payout Perspective. UFC 305 took place Sunday morning in Perth, Australia at the RAC Arena.
DDP successfully turns back Adesanya
Dricus Du Plessis made his first successful middleweight title defense against former champion Israel Adesanya. While the fight was close, DDP was able to stun Adesanya and submit him with a rear naked choke in the fourth round of their championship match.
The promotion for this match was awkward and uncomfortable which was supplemented by Adesanya visibly crying after comments made by DDP during the pre-fight press conference. And while DDP receives criticism for his fighting style, he continues to win inside the Octagon and outside of it.
Next up appears to be a potential rematch with Sean Strickland who remained in the news cycle this week with accusations against an MMA manager.
Kai Kara-France KOs hometown favorite Erceg
Kai Kara-France made a case for him to get the next title shot against Alexandre Pantoja. KKF stopped the hometown boy in the very first round of the fight.
Erceg, a Perth native, was the last fighter to challenge the Flyweight champion for the title. KKF hopes that his performance gives him next shot at the 125-pound title.
The RAC Arena drew 14,152 for a live gate of $5,477,097. According to the UFC, it was a sell out and was slightly larger than the last time that the promotion came to Perth.
The bonuses went to Kai Kara-France, Carlos Prates for their stoppages. The Fight of the Night went to Dan Hooker and
Sponsorships
Since this was an overseas PPV, Hudson Shipping, Blockasset and Ladbrokes were in the Octagon on Sponsors. Streaming service Kick was in the Octagon as well as Western Australia’s tourism board. Bud Light was the presenting sponsor of the Prelims. Budweiser shared an Octagon post with 7-Eleven. Prime, Toyo Tires, Howler Head, Crypto.com, Project Rock, VeChain and Monster had the center of the Octagon. Incentive Games, a Scottish software company, was new to the Octagon.
Odds and ends
DDP is now a Monster Energy sponsored athlete.
Drake bet on Adesanya and received thanks from DDP.
From the bottom of my heart once again
— Dricus Du Plessis (@dricusduplessis) August 18, 2024
THANK YOU @Drake 🤣 pic.twitter.com/bcSiOjGezd
A judge was removed from judging the rest of the night after his scorecard on the Jair Rozenstruik-Tai Tuivasa was off.
Howie Booth, who gave all three rounds to Tai Tuivasa, has been relieved of his duties for the rest of the night, Jon Anik announced during the #UFC305 broadcast. pic.twitter.com/81siV6EL0K
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) August 18, 2024
Conclusion
DDP-Adesanya was a compelling matchup and should deliver somewhere between 350K and 450K buys. The main card was solid and it follows a UFC 304 which did not feature solid matchups. Adesanya is a PPV draw but with this losing streak his star be on the decline.
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